Zhang was born and raised in Beijing, China. Her father was an accountant and later economist, and her mother, a kindergarten teacher.[2][3] She has an older brother with whom she was very close. Zhang began studying dance when she was 8 years old; subsequently, she joined the Beijing Dance Academy at her parents' suggestion at the age of 11.[4] While at this boarding school, she noticed how mean the other girls were to each other while competing for status amongst the teachers. Zhang disliked the attitudes of her peers and teachers so much that, on one occasion, she ran away from the school.[3] At the age of 15, Zhang won the national youth dance championship and also appeared in a handful of TV commercials and began appearing in television commercials in Hong Kong.[5]

Zhang then appeared in her first American film, Rush Hour 2 (2001). On playing her first villain role, Zhang expressed that "the opportunity to sort of try and analyze the psyche of the character and get to know and pull out emotions I’ve never had to utilize before...was very exciting."[17]

Zhang went back to the martial arts genre in House of Flying Daggers (2004), again by Zhang Yimou, where she starred along Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau. She plays the blind dancing girl Mei, who despite the lack of eyesight, is a skilled fighter.[23] In preparation for the part, Zhang spent two months living with an actual blind girl.[24] Her performance earned her a Best Actress nomination at the BAFTA Awards.[25] She also featured on the House of Flying Daggers soundtrack with her own musical rendition of the ancient Chinese poem Jia Rén Qu (佳人曲, The Beauty Song).[26]

Zhang next starred in Wong Kar-wai's romantic drama film 2046 (2004), which featured many top Chinese actors and actresses.[27] Critics praise Zhang for her "expressive" body language that was combined with her "reserved and complex emotions" in performance as a struggling prostitute.[28] Zhang won Best Actress awards at the Hong Kong Film Critics' Award and Hong Kong Film Academy Award.[29][28]

Zhang reunited with Wong Kar-wai and Tony Leung for The Grandmaster (2013), which also marks her return to the martial arts genre after 7 years since The Banquet (2006).[52] The film was China's submission to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign-Language Picture. Critics praise Zhang's portrayal of Gong'Er as the "best performance she's ever delivered in the history of her career."[53] which led to her winning several "Best Actress" trophies across Asia.[54] The same year, she reprised her role as Sophie in My Lucky Star, a sequel to Sophie's Revenge.[55] Described as Zhang's "breakthrough comedy role", the film topped Chinese box office on the week of its release.[56]

In 2014, Zhang starred in John Woo's romantic epic The Crossing, based on the true story of the Taiping steamer collision and follows six characters and their intertwining love stories in Taiwan and Shanghai during the 1930s. Zhang plays a poor illiterate woman waiting for her soldier lover in 1930's Shanghai.[57]

In 2012, an overseas Chinese website Boxun falsely reported that Zhang Ziyi was paid $100 million to sleep with top Chinese officials. Zhang sued Boxun in a US court for defamation. In December 2013, Boxun settled the case after agreeing to pay an undisclosed amount to Zhang and issue a front-page apology.[80] Zhang also won court cases in Hong Kong against Next Media over similar false reports in Apple Daily and Next Magazine.[80]

In the July 2006 issue of Interview magazine, Zhang spoke of her movies' contents and being careful about the roles she takes on, especially in Hollywood:

“

Yes. Otherwise I could have done a lot of Hollywood movies. After Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon I got a lot of offers, but I turned them down because they were all victim roles—poor girls sold to America to be a wife or whatever. I know I have the ability to go deeper, to take on more original roles than that. That's why I really appreciated Geisha, because it allowed us to show the world what kind of actors we are and what kind of characters we can play—not just action, kick-ass parts.[81]

Zhang was engaged to Israeli American venture capitalist Aviv Nevo until the couple separated in 2010.[85][86] Zhang married Chinese rock musician Wang Feng in May 2015.[87] On 27 December, 2015, Zhang gave birth to their daughter Wang Xingxing.[88]

1.
Chinese surname
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Chinese surnames are used by Han Chinese and Sinicized ethnic groups in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Vietnam and among overseas Chinese communities. In ancient times two types of surnames existed, namely xing or lineage names, and shi or clan names, Chinese family names are patrilineal, passed from father to children. Women do not normally change their surnames upon marriage, except in places with more Western influences such as Hong Kong, traditionally Chinese surnames have been exogamous. The colloquial expressions laobaixing and bǎixìng are used in Chinese to mean ordinary folks, prior to the Warring States period, only the ruling families and the aristocratic elite had surnames. Historically there was also a difference between clan names or xing and lineages names or shi, Xing were surnames held by the noble clans. They generally are composed of a nü radical which has taken by some as evidence they originated from matriarchal societies based on maternal lineages. Another hypothesis has been proposed by sinologist Léon Vandermeersch upon observation of the evolution of characters in oracular scripture from the Shang dynasty through the Zhou, the female radical seems to appear at the Zhou period next to Shang sinograms indicating an ethnic group or a tribe. This combination seems to designate specifically a female and could mean lady of such or such clan, prior to the Qin Dynasty China was largely a fengjian society. In this way, a nobleman would hold a shi and a xing, after the states of China were unified by Qin Shi Huang in 221 BC, surnames gradually spread to the lower classes and the difference between xing and shi blurred. Many shi surnames survive to the present day, according to Kiang Kang-Hu, there are 18 sources from which Chinese surnames may be derived, while others suggested at least 24. The following are some of the sources, Xing, These were usually reserved for the central lineage of the royal family. Of these xings, only Jiang and Yao have survived in their form to modern days as frequently occurring surnames. Royal decree by the Emperor, such as Kuang, state name, Many nobles and commoners took the name of their state, either to show their continuing allegiance or as a matter of national and ethnic identity. These are some of the most common Chinese surnames, name of a fief or place of origin, Fiefdoms were often granted to collateral branches of the aristocracy and it was natural as part of the process of sub-surnaming for their names to be used. An example is Di, Marquis of Ouyangting, whose descendants took the surname Ouyang, there are some two hundred examples of this identified, often of two-character surnames, but few have survived to the present. Names of an ancestor, Like the previous example, this was also a common origin with close to 500 or 600 examples,200 of which are two-character surnames, often an ancestors courtesy name would be used. For example, Yuan Taotu took the character of his grandfathers courtesy name Boyuan as his surname. Sometimes titles granted to ancestors could also be taken as surnames, seniority within the family, In ancient usage, the characters of meng, zhong, shu and ji were used to denote the first, second, third and fourth eldest sons in a family

2.
Zhang (surname)
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Zhang is the pinyin romanization of the very common Chinese surname written 张 in simplified characters and 張 traditionally. It is spoken in the first tone, Zhāng and it is a surname that exists in many languages and cultures, corresponding to the surname Archer in English for example. 張 was the Chữ Nôm form of the Vietnamese surname Trương, the Hanja of the Korean surname romanized Jang and Chang. It remains the Kanji for the Japanese surname romanized Chō, in Vietnamese, the surname written 章 in Chữ Nôm is clearly distinguished and written as Trang or Chương. As mentioned above, 张 is the surname in mainland China. On Taiwan, 張 is the surname, making up 5. 26% of the population of the Republic of China. 章 was unlisted among the top 100 in either location, among the Chinese diaspora, the name remains common but takes on various romanizations. 張 combines the Chinese characters 弓 and 長 and it originally meant to open up or to spread as an arching bow, but as a common noun in modern use it is a measure word for flat objects such as paper and cloth, like the English sheet of. 章 combines the characters 音 and 十, the traditional origin of the surname 張 is rooted in Chinese legend. The fifth son of the Yellow Emperor, Qing Yangshi, had a son Hui who was inspired by the Heavenly Bow constellation to invent the bow and arrow. Hui was then promoted to First Bow and bestowed the surname 張 and its Middle Chinese pronunciation has been reconstructed as Trjang. The surname 章 originated from the legendary Yan Emperor, whose surname was Jiang. On the establishment of the state of Qi, Jiang Ziya apportioned the land among his many descendants, some of the people of this state took 章 as their surname, particularly after it was annexed by Qi. The Middle Chinese pronunciation of the name was Tsyang, the beginnings of what we now know to be the Zhang surname, tjose whose original surnames at birth are Zhang are also included on this list. Historical figures Zhang Yi, strategist in the Warring States period, Zhang Bao son of Zhang Fei and general of Shu Han Zhang Hong, Official of Sun Quan in the Late Han Dynasty. Zhang Yi, general of Shu Han in the Three Kingdoms period, Empress Zhang, Empress of Shu Han in the Three Kingdoms period. Zhang He, general of Cao Wei in the Three Kingdoms period, Zhang Liao, general of Cao Wei in the Three Kingdoms period. Zhang Zhao, Minister of Eastern Wu in the Three Kingdoms period, Zhang Cheng, general and Politician of Eastern Wu in the Three Kingdoms period

3.
Beijing
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Beijing is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China and the worlds third most populous city proper. It is also one of the worlds most populous capital cities, the city, located in northern China, is governed as a direct-controlled municipality under the national government with 16 urban, suburban, and rural districts. Beijing is the second largest Chinese city by population after Shanghai and is the nations political, cultural. It is home to the headquarters of most of Chinas largest state-owned companies, and is a hub for the national highway, expressway, railway. The citys history dates back three millennia, as the last of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China, Beijing has been the political centre of the country for much of the past eight centuries. Beijing was the largest city in the world by population for much of the second millennium A. D, the city is renowned for its opulent palaces, temples, parks, gardens, tombs, walls and gates. Its art treasures and universities have made it centre of culture, encyclopædia Britannica notes that few cities in the world have served for so long as the political headquarters and cultural centre of an area as immense as China. Siheyuans, the traditional housing style, and hutongs, the narrow alleys between siheyuans, are major tourist attractions and are common in urban Beijing. The city hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics and was chosen to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, many of Beijings 91 universities consistently rank among the best in China, of which Peking University and Tsinghua University are ranked in the top 60 universities in the world. Beijings Zhongguancun area is known as Chinas Silicon Valley and Chinas center of innovation. According to the 2016 InterNations Expat Insider Survey, Beijing ranked first in Asia in the subcategory Personal Finance Index, expats live primarily in urban districts such as Dongcheng and Chaoyang in the east, or in suburban districts such as Shunyi. Over the past 3,000 years, the city of Beijing has had other names. The name Beijing, which means Northern Capital, was applied to the city in 1403 during the Ming Dynasty to distinguish the city from Nanjing, the English spelling is based on the pinyin romanisation of the two characters as they are pronounced in Standard Mandarin. Those dialects preserve the Middle Chinese pronunciation of 京 as kjaeng, the single Chinese character abbreviation for Beijing is 京, which appears on automobile license plates in the city. The official Latin alphabet abbreviation for Beijing is BJ, the earliest traces of human habitation in the Beijing municipality were found in the caves of Dragon Bone Hill near the village of Zhoukoudian in Fangshan District, where Peking Man lived. Homo erectus fossils from the date to 230,000 to 250,000 years ago. Paleolithic Homo sapiens also lived more recently, about 27,000 years ago. Archaeologists have found neolithic settlements throughout the municipality, including in Wangfujing, the first walled city in Beijing was Ji, a city from the 11th to 7th century BC

4.
Central Academy of Drama
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The Central Academy of Drama is a drama school in Beijing, China. It is located on 39 E Mianhua Hutong, Dongcheng Qu, Beijing Shi,100009 The academy was established in April 1950 and it was named by Mao Zedong. It inherited the drama department of Lu Xun Art Academy in Yanan, art school of North China University, many famous Chinese actors, actresses, and directors graduated from the Academy, such as Zhang Ziyi, Jiang Wen, Gong Li. It is regarded as one of the most prestigious schools in China, together with Beijing Film Academy. The Central Academy of Drama is a central subordinate university and it is also an art college directly under the Ministry of Education. It is the highest institution of education in art, the worlds leading art institutions. In Chinese drama, visual arts teaching and research center, the Asian Theater Education Centre is locating there. The Central Academy of Drama has engaged in the practice of drama and it is a world famous higher educational institute of arts, and holds the UNESCO CHAIR ON THEATRE EDUCATION. Note that class year indicates the year, not graduating year. chntheatre. edu. cn/

5.
Actor
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An actor is a person who portrays a character in a performance. Simplistically speaking, the person denominated actor or actress is someone beautiful who plays important characters, the actor performs in the flesh in the traditional medium of the theatre, or in modern mediums such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is ὑποκριτής, literally one who answers, the actors interpretation of their role pertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. Interpretation occurs even when the actor is playing themselves, as in forms of experimental performance art, or, more commonly, to act, is to create. Formerly, in societies, only men could become actors. When used for the stage, women played the roles of prepubescent boys. The etymology is a derivation from actor with ess added. However, when referring to more than one performer, of both sexes, actor is preferred as a term for male performers. Actor is also used before the name of a performer as a gender-specific term. Within the profession, the re-adoption of the term dates to the 1950–1960s. As Whoopi Goldberg put it in an interview with the paper, Im an actor – I can play anything. The U. K. performers union Equity has no policy on the use of actor or actress, an Equity spokesperson said that the union does not believe that there is a consensus on the matter and stated that the. subject divides the profession. In 2009, the Los Angeles Times stated that Actress remains the term used in major acting awards given to female recipients. However, player remains in use in the theatre, often incorporated into the name of a group or company, such as the American Players. Also, actors in improvisational theatre may be referred to as players, prior to Thespis act, Grecian stories were only expressed in song, dance, and in third person narrative. In honor of Thespis, actors are commonly called Thespians, the exclusively male actors in the theatre of ancient Greece performed in three types of drama, tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play. Western theatre developed and expanded considerably under the Romans, as the Western Roman Empire fell into decay through the 4th and 5th centuries, the seat of Roman power shifted to Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire. Records show that mime, pantomime, scenes or recitations from tragedies and comedies, dances, from the 5th century, Western Europe was plunged into a period of general disorder

6.
Model (person)
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A model is a person with a role either to promote, display, or advertise commercial products or to serve as a visual aide for people who are creating works of art or to pose for photography. Modelling is considered to be different from other types of public performance, although the difference between modelling and performing is not always clear, appearing in a film or a play is not generally considered to be modelling. Types of modelling include, fashion, glamour, fitness, bikini, fine art, body-part, Models are featured in a variety of media formats including, books, magazines, films, newspapers, internet and TV. Fashion models are featured in films, reality TV shows. Celebrities, including actors, singers, sports personalities and reality TV stars, modelling as a profession was first established in 1853 by Charles Frederick Worth, the father of haute couture, when he asked his wife, Marie Vernet Worth, to model the clothes he designed. The term house model was coined to describe this type of work, eventually, this became common practice for Parisian fashion houses. There were no standard physical measurement requirements for a model, with the development of fashion photography, the modelling profession expanded to photo modelling. Models remained fairly anonymous, and relatively poorly paid, until the late 1950s, one of the first well-known models was Lisa Fonssagrives, who was very popular in the 1930s. Fonssagrives appeared on over 200 Vogue covers, and her name recognition led to the importance of Vogue in shaping the careers of fashion models. In 1946, Ford Models was established by Eileen and Gerard Ford in New York, one of the most popular models during the 1940s was Jinx Falkenburg who was paid $25 per hour, a large sum at the time. During the 1940s and 1950s, Wilhelmina Cooper, Jean Patchett, Dovima, Dorian Leigh, Suzy Parker, Evelyn Tripp, Carmen DellOrefice, dorothea Church was among the first black models in the industry to gain notoriety in Paris. However, these models were unknown outside the fashion community, compared to todays models, the models of the 1950s were more voluptuous. Wilhelmina Coopers measurements were 38-24-36 whereas Chanel Imans measurements are 32-23-33, in the 1960s, the modelling world began to establish modelling agencies. Throughout Europe, secretarial services acted as models agents charging them weekly rates for their messages, for the most part, models were responsible for their own billing. In Germany, agents were not allowed to work for a percentage of a persons earnings, with the exception of a few models travelling to Paris or New York, travelling was relatively unheard of for a model. Most models only worked in one market due to different labor laws governing modelling in various countries, in the 1960s, Italy had many fashion houses and fashion magazines but was in dire need of models. Italian agencies would often coerce models to return to Italy without work visas by withholding their pay and they would also pay their models in cash, which models would have to hide from customs agents. It was not uncommon for models staying in such as La Louisiana in Paris or the Arena in Milan to have their hotel rooms raided by the police looking for their work visas

7.
Black hair
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Black hair is the darkest and most common of all human hair colors globally, due to larger populations with this dominant trait. It is a dominant genetic trait, and it is found in people of all backgrounds and it has large amounts of eumelanin and is less dense than other hair colors. Sometimes very dark hair is mistaken for black. In English, black hair is described as soft-black, raven black. The range of colors associated with black hair is vast. Black-haired humans can have dark or light eyes and this is likely the original hair color of Homo sapiens, and is found in its greatest distribution in Asia, pre-Columbian Americas and Africa. Black hair is particularly common in people of Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Southern Europe. It is notably concentrated among Celtic peoples of Europe, Irish people with these traits are sometimes known as the Black Irish. Though this characteristic can be seen in people throughout the United Kingdom, Hair is naturally reflective, so black hair isnt completely dark in bright light. However, the darkest shade is deep enough that it doesnt give the reflection a warm, instead, the sheen can seem almost blue, like the iridescence of a ravens wing. Its found in people of African, Latin American, South Asian, human skin color Melanin Pigment Skin Moreno Hair color Hair dye Brown hair Frost, Why Do Europeans Have So Many Hair and Eye Colors. Black Hair, Still Tangled in Politics

8.
Standard Chinese
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Its pronunciation is based on the Beijing dialect, its vocabulary on the Mandarin dialects, and its grammar is based on written vernacular Chinese. Like other varieties of Chinese, Standard Chinese is a language with topic-prominent organization. It has more initial consonants but fewer vowels, final consonants, Standard Chinese is an analytic language, though with many compound words. There exist two standardised forms of the language, namely Putonghua in Mainland China and Guoyu in Taiwan, aside from a number of differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, Putonghua is written using simplified Chinese characters, while Guoyu is written using traditional Chinese characters. There are many characters that are identical between the two systems, in English, the governments of China and Hong Kong use Putonghua, Putonghua Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, and Mandarin, while those of Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, use Mandarin. The name Putonghua also has a long, albeit unofficial, history and it was used as early as 1906 in writings by Zhu Wenxiong to differentiate a modern, standard Chinese from classical Chinese and other varieties of Chinese. For some linguists of the early 20th century, the Putonghua, or common tongue/speech, was different from the Guoyu. The former was a prestige variety, while the latter was the legal standard. Based on common understandings of the time, the two were, in fact, different, Guoyu was understood as formal vernacular Chinese, which is close to classical Chinese. By contrast, Putonghua was called the speech of the modern man. The use of the term Putonghua by left-leaning intellectuals such as Qu Qiubai, prior to this, the government used both terms interchangeably. In Taiwan, Guoyu continues to be the term for Standard Chinese. The term Putonghua, on the contrary, implies nothing more than the notion of a lingua franca, Huayu, or language of the Chinese nation, originally simply meant Chinese language, and was used in overseas communities to contrast Chinese with foreign languages. Over time, the desire to standardise the variety of Chinese spoken in these communities led to the adoption of the name Huayu to refer to Mandarin and it also incorporates the notion that Mandarin is usually not the national or common language of the areas in which overseas Chinese live. The term Mandarin is a translation of Guānhuà, which referred to the lingua franca of the late Chinese empire, in English, Mandarin may refer to the standard language, the dialect group as a whole, or to historic forms such as the late Imperial lingua franca. The name Modern Standard Mandarin is sometimes used by linguists who wish to distinguish the current state of the language from other northern. Chinese has long had considerable variation, hence prestige dialects have always existed. Confucius, for example, used yǎyán rather than colloquial regional dialects, rime books, which were written since the Northern and Southern dynasties, may also have reflected one or more systems of standard pronunciation during those times